JERUSALEM - On a rocky hillside with a spectacular
view of the Old City of Jerusalem, a group of New York teenagers pitched in to
help archeologists recover precious antiquities dug from the Temple Mount.

Students from the Ramaz School, on the upper East Side, washed and sifted the
dirt, removing pieces of ancient pottery, metal, glass, mosaic and bone. On one
recent day, Baruch Shemtov, 17, found what appeared to be a dirt-encrusted dime
in a pile of stones.

As his classmates crowded around, archeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkay of Bar-Ilan
University identified it as a 2,000-year-old coin dating from the Jewish revolt
against the Romans.

"It's very exciting to be digging up history," said Baruch. "It's an honor
that we can do this. It's important that they recover all this. We can learn so
much from it."

The mounds of dirt, with the remains of Solomon's Temple, were excavated from
the Temple Mount. The site is holy to Jews as well as Muslims, who built their
Al Aqsa Mosque atop the sacred plateau.

Archeologists have never been able to examine the site beneath the mosque
because of the struggle between Jews and Muslims. But a controversial excavation
by Islamic authorities - to construct an emergency exit and renovate a shrine -
changed all that.

The soil dug from the plateau was dumped in spots around the city.

"It was a barbaric and illicit dig on the Temple Mount," Barkay said, angered
by the carelessness of the excavation. "Scientifically, [studying the debris
now] is like treating a dead body. This material was brutally killed. We don't
know where it came from, exactly, and there is no way to resuscitate the
material."

For more than half a year, archeologists, with the help of volunteers like
the students from New York, have painstakingly sifted through the dirt, hoping
to recover history.

Also discovered were arrowheads, possibly from the army of King
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon - who invaded Jerusalem about 600 B.C. - gold coins,
jewelry and pottery from before the time of King David.

"But even if we lose 80% of the value, we still are left with 20%, which is
much more than zero," Barkay said.

For the Ramaz students, helping save what they can has filled them with
pride.

"This is really digging up my history and digging up stuff from ancient
times," said Elisheva Bellin, 18. "You feel the temple here in my hands. It's
very exciting to do that."